National plea to host Knife Angel

The creators of the 27ft tall “Knife Angel” made from 100,000 knives are now reaching out to all UK cities – including Glasgow – in a national plea for them to host the magnificent sculpture.

The British Ironwork Centre in Oswestry is hoping other cities will follow suit after Liverpool, Hull and now Coventry have all committed to hosting the Sculpture as part of its National Tour.

The Knife Angel, made from 100,000 knives which were collected by all 43 UK Police Constabularies in Knife Amnesties, was created to raise awareness for the UK’s current knife crime epidemic.

With the support from the Home Office, police forces, families of lost loved ones, and knife crime campaigners, the Angel was born.

Now completed, the creators want it to fulfil its destiny and travel the length and breadth of the United Kingdom.

Clive Knowles, chairman of The British Ironwork Centre, said: “Originally the Angel was created to be displayed on the 4th Plinth in Trafalgar Square in London.

With London refusing to display the sculpture, we are reaching out to the nation to step in when London couldn’t and, in this national plea, we hope to maximise the Angel’s journey and therefore its impact.”

The sculpture’s first visit was to Liverpool back in November 2018, where it stayed until the end of January 2019.

It received an incredible quarter of a million visits whilst stationed outside the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral.

Its next move was to Queens Gardens, in Hull, a city where addressing the national blight of knife related violence is at the forefront of the Humberside Police Force’s tuition.

Humberside Police, alongside Kayleigh Pepper of the RICH foundation, championed bringing the angel to the city to raise awareness and highlight the negative impact of carrying a knife to the youth of the city.

The sculpture will then move on to Coventry Cathedral where it will be hosted over the Easter period.

In 2018, Coventry statistically saw one of the largest increases in knife-related crime outside of the capital city of London, making the Knife Angel’s visit there all the more impactful and important.

The centre has already had a number of enquiries through reaching out to every Cathedral, City Council and Police and Crime Commissioner in the hope that each city can come together to host the Knife Angel, now recognised as the UK’s Nation Monument against Violence and Aggression.